1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for photographing, recording, reproducing, and processing still and moving images, its control method, and a recording medium.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, image processing apparatuses such as electronic cameras and the like, which record/reproduce still and moving images using memory cards having solid state memory elements as recording media have already been commercially available, and electronic cameras with electronic viewfinders such as color liquid crystal panels and the like have also been commercially available.
These electronic cameras can reproduce images recorded on a memory card, and write to a memory card is frequently made during reproduction. For example, while reviewing the reproduced images, an image is erased, a print designation file is generated on a memory card, and so forth.
In such a conventional reproduction apparatus, when the power source voltage to the system drops during file access to a memory card, writing of an image is interrupted so as not to destroy the file system on the memory card. In such case, since the last image written in the recording medium (such as a memory card) cannot be completely recorded due to a system problem, i.e., a drop of the power source voltage, the final state of images on the memory card is different from that which the user intended.
Before recording image data, it is possible to check if the power source voltage is sufficiently high. For example, when image data has a large size and recording requires much time, or when a battery or the like cannot fully exhibit its performance due to low temperature, electric power is consumed quickly. For this reason, even when the power source voltage is sufficiently high before image recording, the voltage drops during recording and, consequently, an image often fails to be recorded.
A voltage drop warning may be generated. However, when the warning is generated at the instant of image recording, electric power may be used up halfway through the recording, and the user may miss an important shutter chance.
The aforementioned problem is highly likely to occur when data other than an image, such as a print designation file or the like, is recorded in addition to image data.